Hideki Matsuyama Ties a Course Record to Win the Bridgestone Invitational

AKRON, Ohio — As Hideki Matsuyama warmed up Sunday afternoon at the Bridgestone Invitational, his tee shots raised the question: Was that a golf club in his hands or a pellet gun? The way he was spraying balls on the range, Matsuyama figured to struggle to break par.

Instead, he tied the Firestone Country Club course record in the final round of the last World Golf Championships event of the season.

With a bogey-free nine-under-par 61, Matsuyama finished five strokes ahead of the runner-up, Zach Johnson, who shared the lead going into Sunday and closed with a 68. Matsuyama eagled the par-5 second to vault into a share of the lead, birdied three of the next seven holes to make the turn in 30 and added birdies at 13, 16, 17 and 18 to distance himself from the field, which included 49 of the top 50 players in the world.

The third-ranked Matsuyama knew perfectly well what the course record was. In the second round of the 2013 tournament, he was grouped with Tiger Woods, who carded a 61 on his way to his 79th PGA Tour victory. Matsuyama said he remembered thinking at the time, “I just couldn’t believe it that anyone could shoot a 61 on this golf course.”

Matsuyama, then ranked 33rd in the world, finished tied for 21st behind Woods, who has not won since. In the four intervening years, Matsuyama, 25, has won five times on the PGA Tour. He described matching Woods’s score as “a dream come true.”

The victory gave Matsuyama bookend World Golf Championships titles. He won by seven strokes in Shanghai in October, beating Henrik Stenson, who only a few months earlier had won the British Open. That finish came during a stretch in which Matsuyama was perhaps the hottest player on the planet. Between mid-October and early February, he won five tournaments worldwide, including an unofficial event hosted by Woods. He also had two runner-up finishes.

In February, Matsuyama moved within reach of the No. 1 ranking, then held by Jason Day, but succumbed to the pressure and missed the cut at the Genesis Open. Dustin Johnson won the tournament to rise to No. 1, where he remains.

No Japanese golfer has won a men’s major. Matsuyama has come close: He finished tied for second at this year’s United States Open, tied for fourth at last year’s P.G.A. Championship and tied for seventh at the 2016 Masters. A sizable contingent of the Japanese news media shadows Matsuyama during each competitive round he plays in the United States. Before every major, the other top players have grown accustomed to being asked by Japanese reporters to assess Matsuyama’s chances at victory.

Jordan Spieth, who closed with a 68 to finish tied for 13th here, can complete a career Grand Slam with a victory at this week’s P.G.A. Championship at Quail Hollow in North Carolina. So, which question does he expect to field first, one about his chances to win his fourth major or one about Matsuyama’s chances to win his first?

Spieth, the world No. 2, said it would probably be about his prospects. Smiling, he added, “I normally don’t get asked about Hideki until the third or fourth question.”

Although he won the British Open last month, Spieth said that after watching the way Rory McIlroy was striking the ball here, he considers McIlroy — a two-time P.G.A. Championship winner and twice a champion of the tour event at Quail Hollow — the favorite going into the final men’s major of the year.

McIlroy, who pulled to within one stroke of the lead early in Sunday’s round before settling for a final-round 69 and a tie for ninth, nine strokes back, chuckled when told about Spieth’s handicapping. “Trying to take some pressure off himself,” McIlroy, the world No. 4, said. “I see what he’s trying to do.”

McIlroy, who missed the cut at the United States Open and finished tied for fourth at the British Open, added: “If I’m the favorite, I’m happy with that. Means I’m playing well. Much different than I went into my last majors. It’s amazing what two weeks can do.”

It’s also amazing what one drive can do. As he walked to the first tee box, Matsuyama was wondering where his swing had gone. After his third-round 67, he headed to the range and worked on his tempo until darkness fell. “I hit it really well and had a lot of confidence,” Matsuyama said through an interpreter.

He described his range session as “probably the worst warm-up I’ve ever had in a tournament that I’ve won.” He added, “I was shocked.”

Matsuyama hit an errant first drive, but instead of making him more anxious, it had a calming effect.

“Something clicked,” he said, “and from that point on, I was able to find it again.”

The rest of the round, Matsuyama said, “I felt calm, peaceful, didn’t try to get too high or too low.”

The challenge for Matsuyama over the next week will be to maintain his serenity while his compatriots calculate his chances of winning the P.G.A. Championship.

“I hope their expectations aren’t too high,” he said, adding, “My expectations at the beginning of the week weren’t that high, and here we are.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D5 of the New York edition with the headline: Matsuyama Tunes Up by Matching a Record. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe